We love our home. It’s not a stately mansion nor large but we constantly look at this beautiful cottage and wonder how we got so lucky to be here.
For both of us, the two flower beds at the front give us so much joy. Every month is different but June is by far the most colourful.
Don’t get me wrong, we have other flower beds which we spend a lot of time admiring. This flower bed is just outside of the chicken field and to me it marks the boundary of the garden and our working area.
BUT there is something about the two flower beds in front of the cottage that feel special.
The local honey bees and bumble bees are out in force in our lupins.
Anyone that has ever gardened knows that PLANTS DON’T READ THE BOOKS! The books say plants like full sun and well drained soil and then you plant them believing you have the perfect conditions and….they don’t survive.
That’s why I love lupins. Full sun, part shade, full shade they grow brilliantly here. In fact I’m constantly finding rebel lupins that have self-seeded all over the place.
We have a multitude of colours too from white to dark purple and a number of bi-colour flower-spiked
A lot of the colours in June come from aquilegia plants. We’ve found they are so easy to grow and they come in so many varieties and colours it’s impossible for us to be bored.
We have multiple plants with two flowers including striking white and red as well as more subtle white and yellow. We also have a very unusual white aquilegia which is “fuzzy”. I can’t think how I could better describe it, so please look at the photograph!
One of our favourites are the Red Hot Pokers aka kniphofia. They only flower in June at our home but they have dense, lush foliage that last all year which means less weeding WHOO HOO!
They are so low maintenance as I don’t think I’ve ever watered them or even given them any attention other than to admire them. What’s not to like?
We’ve constructed our cottage flower garden for minimum maintenance. We have no time to weed or add plants. All of our time is needed to grow our food and look after our chickens. Watch our 5 golden rules to create a low maintenance cottage garden on YouTube.
Beautiful! I much prefer a charming cottage to a stately mansion. And your June garden is a stunner!
Thank you so much Jean. That’s so kind of you